Bookmarks: Battleship ghosts battle saboteurs

The military thriller meets the supernatural in "A Final Broadside," the latest novel from Ocean Isle Beach resident Buddy Worrell (Abbott Press, $18.98).

Worrell's protagonist is Ken Hager, a North Carolina boy who was born just as his father, a Navy officer, was going down with the battleship Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941.

As he grows up, Hager discovers he has paranormal abilities -- and a particular psychic bond with the dead of the USS Arizona, who have quite a lot to say in the Afterlife.

Sent on a mission by his father, Hager tries to block a Cambodian terrorist with plans to unleash a weapon of mass destruction on the United States. His efforts take him to the Battleship North Carolina Memorial, where he enlists the help of the Showboat's ghostly crew.

A retired executive married to his high school sweetheart, Worrell has written two previous novels.

"A Final Broadside" is available from Amazon.com.

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Back in print: "Snipe Hunt," the 2000 mystery by Sarah Shaber, set on the Brunswick Islands.

Shaber's sleuth, Professor Simon Shaw, is vacationing at fictional "Pearlie Beach" when a dredge brings up a World War II diving suit and helmet -- with skeletal remains still inside. The mystery leads to Confederate gold, Nazi spies and a terrible family secret.

"Snipe Hunt" had been out of print, and available only in ebook format for years, until Shaber re-released it, and several other Simon Shaw mysteries, in paperback on her own. Copies may be ordered at Amazon.com. The Kindle edition is still available.

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The University of Jena in Germany has published "Writing 20th Century International History: Explorations and Examples" by Carole Fink of Wilmington. Fink served as a guest professor at Jena in the summer of 2016.

The five papers in the book cover such topics as protecting refugees and religious and ethnic minorities and Cold War diplomacy. In a postscript, Fink is interviewed on her development as a scholar and her thoughts on international history.

A graduate of Bard College with a Ph.D. from Yale, Fink taught at the University of North Carolina Wilmington before joining The Ohio State University, where she is now a humanities distinguished professor emeritus. Her books include "Cold War: An International History," "Defending the Rights of Others," "The Genoa Conference" and "Mark Bloch: A Life in History."

"Writing 20th Century International History" is available from Amazon.com and comes in a Kindle edition.

Reporter Ben Steelman can be reached at 910-343-2208 or Ben.Steelman@StarNewsOnline.com.

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